Northern Ireland Sites

stapeler

Has anybody got any suggestions for a good family campsite in Northern Ireland.

Terrontress

stapeler wrote:

Has anybody got any suggestions for a good family campsite in Northern Ireland.

The two I would recommend, in terms of quality of location and local amenities, are Kilbroney Park in Rostrever and Castlewellan.

Kilbroney is approximately 25 minutes from the border. It is on the shores of Carlingford Lough and there is a mountain, Slieve Martin, beside it. There are lots of lovely walks, child's play park and the town is less than five minute walk. There are some nice pubs and restaurants in Rostrevor and Warrenpoint which is just along the road. Rostrevor also has a Spar and an ATM and other amenities.

Castlewellan, as the name would suggest, is in the grounds of a castle. It is a bit further removed from the town but there is a good visitor's centre, a lake, loads of walks in the nearby Mourne Mountains, a maze. You are also close to Newcastle, which is like a traditional seaside resort with amusements, fish and chips etc. There is also a great swimming pool with slides etc in Newcastle.

I have no experience of these place in terms of their suitability as campsites, other than that I have seen campervans and caravans at them.

stapeler

Thanks for that Terrontress. We ended up staying a night in Ballywhiskin and two nights in Dundonald about 4 miles east of Belfast, a small council run site, spotless and very central. Will definetly return there.

Terrontress

I come from very close to Dundonald.

While I would be very hesitant to recommend the area in general, you should be OK up beside the Ice Bowl provided that you only travel in and out of the immediate area in a taxi.

The Tullycarnet estate beside the site is extremely rough and the village of Dundonald is not much better.

zagmund

I can recommend Kilbroney for the parkland setting, the overall environment and the facilities. We were there about two years ago and the place was great. The walk down to Rostrevor through the park is particularly nice, but the walk up is pretty steep . . . The one problem we had (may just have been the set of visitors on the day) was that the noise went on well into the night. There seemed to be a lot of groups of 2/3/4 families and once they got going there was no stopping them making noise. Having said that, we will be returning again this summer on a non-peak weekend to see how it is again.

z

aidanpjryan

We stayed there last weekend the weather was great and the park was nearly full. aido:)

champer

Hi

We are heading up north for the long weekend and have the whole next week there too We were thinking of staying along the Down, Antrim coast. Anyone any recomendations for there (thanks for the above ones) or anything of interest to do or see would be welcome too

Thanks Champer

bido

Pick up the caravan park guide from a tourist office they have all the parks in it.Kilbroney is good when it's quiet. Nice park in Newcastle also.

Aido:)

champer

Just had to give a little update here. We headed off for the long weekend only to sit on the M50 carpark for almost 3 hours ... makes living in Dublin such fun when it comes to getting out of it at the weekend. Anyway we were obvioulsy better off than most as we were in the capmper and the fella could even partake in a cold beer as i had said i would drive. (Again this caused some laughs as he was in passenger seat:D )
Anyway I digress ... we went to a lovely village called Kilkeel and we stayed in a place called Sandilands which was average but a nice setting. A few small downfalls like cold shower (maybe just time of day that I had one) no recycling whatsoever... 16.50 per night with or with out electric hookup. THen we drove on to Portaferry, where we "wild camped" but the sitre there looked quite good.
Off to Ballycastle where we found a gem. It is called Silvercliff CAmpsite and for kids it was excellent too. It cost about 16.50 per night per unit. THis is all within easy access of Giants Causeway and Bushmills etc. There was a very visible playground that you could sit at your van and see all the time. Also there was an indoor swimming pool on site. You did have to pay 2 pp or something like that but it was well worth. Overall very good campsite and shop open too for a couple of hours oh and I nearly forgot :eek: .... a pub too!!!
Back down to Dundalk/ Carlingford and Giles Quay, again nice campsite €20 being a reasonable price too. Again a pub onsite and beach access.
So overall and with sterling being that bit lower, I would surely recommend the Antrim/ Down coastline. The only bit I wouldnt recommend if you are afriad of heights like me is the Carrick-a-Rede ropebridge .. lovely walk up to it but scarey on it !!!!